قَرْن can refer to a generation or the people of an era. Here it identifies the first generation and those following it. ثُمَّ marks the sequence “then.”
The report directs students toward the earlier generations as models for learning, truthfulness, and fidelity to the Sunnah. It does not imply that every later individual lacks virtue or that a person’s assertions become automatically correct because of claimed historical affiliation.
Integrity remains essential in the present.